The Meek Will Inherit the Land

How does the ability to imagine future liberation empower action today that will, bit by bit, bring that better future closer?

Psalm 37:10-11

 Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more;
    though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there.
But the meek will inherit the land
    They will revel in an abundance of peace.

Let’s keep exploring Psalm 37 and Jesus’s reference to it when he says, “Blessed are the meek; they will inherit the land” (Matthew 5:5).

In Decolonizing Palestine (2023), Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb explains how both Psalm 37 and Matthew 5:5 refer specifically to the land of Palestine, not the whole earth. Then, he admits that for years he thought Jesus was mistaken:

Taking in the West Bank’s illegal Israeli settlements and Gaza’s open-air prison — and now all-out genocide — it’s “obvious,” Raheb says, “that the [Western] empire has inherited the land.”

However, Raheb finally realizes that both Jesus and the psalmist take a long-term view: In the line of empires occupying Palestine, from Assyria to Rome to Britain, not one lasted forever. And Raheb declares that modern Israel will be the same.

When empires like Assyria and Rome, modern Israel and the USA crumble under the weight of their own corruption, settlers and others made rich by Empire withdraw to the imperial core. It’s the poor and powerless who remain to restore and rebuild: The meek truly do inherit the land.

Ponder alone or with others: How does the ability to imagine future liberation empower action today that will, bit by bit, bring that better future closer? 

You may gain inspiration from this reflection. 

—Avery Arden